Saved by the Lightning

The forest didn't care that Ryota was running for his life.

It offered him no clear path, no mercy, branches whipping at his face and arms as he crashed through them without looking back. Not once. He wouldn't even allow himself to take a second to rest.

"I have to get away!!" Ryota's breath came in ragged gasps. His lungs burned and his legs screamed. He has never been this afraid before. "I have to get away from that thing!!"

He didn't slow down until the trees thinned and the familiar smell of salt air and fish reached him. The smell of the village, of people, of safety. Only then did Ryota let himself stop, doubling over with his hands on his knees, gasping for the air he very much needed.

He stayed like that for a long moment. "...It's not following me, is it?" Ryota whispered to no one in particular, before risking a glance back over his shoulder. The tree line swayed gently. There was no hulking shadow, no glowing eyes, no strange creatures. His heartbeat slowed just slightly, though his fingers still shook.

When he finally straightened up, wiping the sweat from his face, his eyes landed on the last person he wanted to see right now.

Mika was standing not twenty paces away near the edge of the tree line, spear resting across his shoulders, his expression unreadable at first. His blue eyes scanned Ryota's face, confusion painted on his features before realization darkened them.

"Ryota, what's wrong with you? You seem like you've seen a ghost." Mika frowned, lowering his spear slightly as he approached the other boy. For a second, Mika thought Ryota was running from some stupid fight he had gotten himself into. It wouldn't be the first time something like that happened.

The silence between them stretched. The older boy's face was pale, his breathing ragged, and his usually smug expression had completely vanished. Mika could tell something is wrong here, perhaps more than he originally thought.

"I...Ugh..." Ryota wasn't sure what to say. His mind wasn't exactly in the best state it could be right now.

"...Where is she?" Mika's voice was low. Almost calm, strangely. "Where is my sister? Wasn't she with you?" The spear shifted slightly in his grip.

Ryota opened his mouth. The words didn't come the way he wanted them to. "T-There was this creature, an-and it came out of nowhere, I swear, and it was huge, I've never seen anything like it—"

"Where is Maya, Ryota?!" Mika snapped, his knuckles whitening around the spear shaft. The calm in his voice cracked like ice underfoot, his blue eyes just as cold. He couldn't find it in himself to pretend to be calm anymore.

Ryota's gaze slid sideways involuntarily, back toward the forest. It was just a flicker, half a second at most, but it was enough.

Mika's fist connected with his face before Ryota even saw him move. The impact snapped the older boy's head sideways, sending him staggering back with a choked gasp, his hand flying up to his nose. "What the?!"

"Where is she?! You left her, didn't you?!" Mika's voice cracked again on the last word in a way he would have been embarrassed about under any other circumstances. "You ran and left my sister alone with that creature you're talking about?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

"I didn't have a choice!" Ryota snapped back, anger flaring up through the pain and the shame in equal measure, his hand still pressed against his nose. "What was I supposed to do?! Fight it?! You didn't see the size of it, Mika, it was—"

"I DON'T CARE HOW BIG IT WAS!!" Mika's voice cracked again, louder this time, raw in a way that had nothing to do with anger anymore and everything to do with fear. Fear for the person most dear to him. " How can you leave a girl on her own?! She doesn't know how to fight, she doesn't... You were supposed to—!!!" He stopped. Swallowed hard. His jaw tightened.

Ryota's expression shifted, something defensive and ugly rising to fill the space where guilt had briefly shown through. "Oh, spare me. Like YOU would have done any better against that thing!"

Mika stared at him for one long, trembling second. As much as he really wanted to beat the freaking crap out of Ryota right now, he knew that now wasn't the time. Now was the time to go and find his sister.

"Where did you take her?" Mika asked, feeling stupid for not having asked that earlier. His hands were shaking, his fingers tightening around his spear.

Something in his tone made further argument feel suddenly pointless. Ryota told him. The waterfall, the clearing, the path through the dense part of the forest on the island's eastern side. He had barely finished the last word before Mika was already moving, spear in hand.

"H-Hey! Wait! You can't seriously be going back in there!" Ryota called after him. "That thing will kill you!! We should let the adults know!" His panicked voice cracked halfway through the sentence.

Mika, however didn't answer. He didn't even look back. He simply only ran, fast as his legs could carry him. He couldn't afford to waste one more second on Ryota.

The forest swallowed him whole.

He ran harder than he had ever run in his life, harder than any training session with his adopted father, harder than any race along the beach with Maya when they were small.

Branches tore at his arms and legs, and yet he didn't let that slow down. Even as his lungs burned, he still didn't slow down.

"I should have never let Maya go alone!" Mika thought, his chest tightening with guilt as his feet pounded the earth. "This is all my fault! All my fault, all my fault, all my fault!" He repeated inside his head. His mind raced with all the possible scenarios of what could be happening to Maya right now, each worse than the last.

As much as the young boy's head was a mess right now, Mika knew one thing however, and it's that he can't live without his sister. He knew that they would be either both coming back to the village, or he will be dying in this forest today with her.

Soon enough, the sound of the village fell away behind him, replaced by the dense rustling of the deep forest, and then gradually, by something else. The waterfall.

He smelled it before he saw it. The cool damp air and mist, and then the trees broke apart as he burst into the clearing and skidded to a stop.

"Maya!!" Mika's voice ripped through the place. It was a desperate, guttural cry that felt wrong coming from his throat.

He quickly managed to spot her. Maya was on the ground near the water's edge, slumped against a mossy rock, her eyes closed. Her clothes were disheveled, her blonde hair loose and tangled around her face, and she was so completely, unnervingly still that for one terrible half second the whole world seemed to drop out from under Mika entirely.

"Maya—" Her name tore out of him once more before he could stop it.

Then he saw her chest rise, and then fall. She was breathing. Sadly for him though, the relief lasted exactly as long as it took him to register what was standing over her.

The Shadow Ape was enormous. His ink-black fur which both somehow made him stand out while also blending into the darkness of the forest. It was one of those things once you notice it, you can't unsee it. Once you see the creature, no matter how much you wish for it, you can't unsee him.

"W-What is...that?" Mika didn't understand what it was he was looking at, but he could tell it was dangerous right away.

Mika could see the claws that the creature had gouged deep lines into the earth around where Maya lay, and those horrible glowing eyes of his which were fixed on his sister with an expression that made something primal and furious ignite behind Mika's ribs.

His hands were shaking. He didn't know if it was fear or rage. Probably both. Either way, he knew he couldn't simply leave things like they are right now.

"HEY! YOU!!" Mika's voice ripped through the clearing.

The Shadow Ape's head snapped toward him. Those glowing eyes shifted from Maya to Mika, and for a moment the creature simply regarded him the same way something very large and very dangerous regards something it considers beneath its notice.

Mika planted his feet. His spear came up. He wouldn't claim to be an expert fighter, but he'd trained a lot since the fire 6 years ago. He was confident he knew the basics, at the very least.

"Get away from her!" His voice wobbled slightly on the last word despite himself. He hated that it did. "Get away from Maya!"

The Shadow Ape moved.

What followed was not a fight so much as a brutal, humiliating education.

The 12 years old boy was fast, genuinely fast, and he knew how to use his spear. He drove forward again and again with everything he had, targeting the creature's chest, its sides, the joints of its massive arms. He landed hits. Real hits. He knew he did.

His strategy coming into this fight was "If it's a big target, it would make it easier for me to hit him." Little did he know that hitting him alone won't be enough, as The Shadow Ape barely felt them.

It caught his spear on the fifth lunge, one enormous hand wrapping around the shaft and wrenching. Mika held on, held on far longer than was wise, and got lifted clean off his feet before his grip gave out.

"Gah!" He let out as he hit the ground hard, tasted blood, and was back up before he had fully processed the pain.

His spear was gone, no, the Shadow Ape had it now, was turning it over in its clawed hands like a curious child inspecting a toy.

"Y-You bastard!" Mika lunged forward. He kept fighting. Fists. Feet. A fallen branch snatched from the ground. His elbow driven hard into the creature's knee.

He was relentless and furious and completely outmatched and somewhere in the back of his mind he knew it, had probably known it from the moment he saw the thing, and he didn't care even slightly. Even if his best wasn't enough, he would still rather die trying than give up.

"Maya is right there... There is no way I'm stopping!" He thought to himself as the Shadow Ape casually backhanded him mid-lunge.

Mika’s vision whited out for half a second, and that was all the time the creature gave him to rest before it caught him by the front of his shirt, ripping it a little while doing so, and threw him like he weighed nothing once more.

He hit the ground near the tree line, his vision turning white again, then grey, then slowly reassembled itself into the familiar shapes of trees and sky and the roaring waterfall.

"That hurt..." He slowly spoke. His lip was split and bleeding. Every breath sent a sharp protest through his left side. His spear was somewhere across the clearing, far out of reach. Not that it would have helped him much anyway.

He tried to get up, but his arms buckled.

"...No." He gritted his teeth, vision swimming. "No— get up— GET UP!!"

He couldn't. No matter how much he shouted at himself, his body was simply not listening to him anymore.

For the first time in his life, Mika genuinely couldn't get back up. Maya was right there, and the Shadow Ape was already turning away from him, its attention sliding back toward her with horrible, patient certainty, as if he had been nothing more than a minor interruption.

He watched through blurred vision as the creature crouched beside Maya's limp form, one massive hand pressing flat against her stomach.

"MAYA!!" Her name ripped out of him, desperate and cracking and nothing like the voice he wanted to have right now, tears blurring his vision hot and humiliating. His fingers dug into the dirt, arms still shaking uselessly beneath him. "Maya, wake up! Please!"

He felt as if all hope was lost, but then... The sky cracked open.

There was no warning, no gathering clouds. One moment the canopy above was green and gold from the sunlight, and the next, a purple colored bolt of lightning split the air with a sound like the world being torn in two, slamming into the ground between the Shadow Ape and Maya.

The Shadow Ape recoiled with that bone-rattling screech, stumbling back several steps, his composure shattered for the first time.

"H-Huh?! What's happening now?!" Mika's head jerked up, tears still wet on his face.

It was then he realized that someone dropped from the trees.

The someone in question was a woman. She landed in a low crouch between Maya and the Shadow Ape, one hand still extended from the strike, the last wisps of electricity curling from her fingertips like smoke.

She rose slowly and calmly, as if she wasn't staring a creature that had just effortlessly dismantled Mika moments prior.

"Who's that?" Mika blinked rapidly, his vision clearing just enough to take in the woman's silhouette. She was beautiful, he thought, he couldn't help but stare at her.

She had long dark, black hair, which fell loose down her back. She wore travelling clothes on her slender body, worn and practical, and at her hip there was a short blade which she hadn't drawn yet. She looked to be around 27, with the kind of calm in her expression that made it very clear she had done crazy things like this before. Many, many times.

"...She's not a bad sight..." Mika thought, blinking again as his gaze traced the curve of her hips. "Wait, now isn't the time for that!" He became suddenly and acutely aware that he was still lying in the dirt with a split lip, tear tracks on his face, and absolutely no dignity left to speak of.

The woman didn't look at him yet. Her attention was entirely on the Shadow Ape, which had recovered from the lightning strike and was now squaring itself toward her with a low rattling growl, its fur standing on end. The creature can tell this woman is a threat.

"Been tracking you for three days." She said to it, conversationally, like she was commenting on the weather. "You've caused quite a lot of trouble, I hope you know."

The Shadow Ape screamed at her. Mika knew if he wasn't on the ground already, that scream might have just knocked him off his feet. The scream left the leaves nearby shaking.

The woman, however, didn't even flinch. Her dark blue eyes simply stared back at the creature as she drew her short blade.

"It's as they say, The Shadow Apes are as ugly as sin." The woman murmured, unbothered.

Purple lightning started gathering around her blade. She was getting ready to finish this. The Shadow Ape's ink-black fur stood fully on end, also preparing to strike the second the woman steps close.

Little did the Shadow Ape know, however, is that she never needed to get close. Suddenly, Mika saw the woman flick her wrist, short blade in hand. The lightning streaked outward in a whip-like arc, snapping through the air.

The Shadow Ape barely had time to blink before the crackling energy coiled directly into his chest and went out the other side.

"Magic!" Mika thought to himself, watching the scene in front of him with wide eyes. "She can also use magic..."

The sound of the lightning shook the trees. The Shadow Ape crashed to the earth and did not get up.

The clearing went quiet. Just the waterfall and the faint crackle of electricity coming from the woman’s fingertips. Mika’s ears rang, his pulse still pounding in his throat as he watched the Shadow Ape’s unmoving body, its fur smoking where the lightning had struck.

The woman stood over the creature for a moment, watching, making sure it was really dead. Then she straightened, shook the last sparks from her fingers, and finally turned around.

Her dark blue eyes found Maya first, still unconscious, but still breathing.

"Hmm? This girl... She's..." She spoke to herself, a strange expression on her face. Whatever it was, it was gone before Mika could make sense of it.

And then, she looked at him. Mika had no idea who she could possibly be. All he knew was that no way was she someone who lived on Dolphin Island. This was the kind of place where everyone knew of everyone, and something told him a woman who fights with a short sword and lightning magic would easily stand out.

She crossed the clearing and crouched down in front of him, looking him over with a quick, practical assessment. Up close her eyes were dark and sharp.

"M-Maya..." Mika started immediately, his voice still rough. "My sister, is she..."

"Breathing. Unconscious. She'll be alright, you don't have to worry." Her voice was calm, direct, and somewhat soft. "You charged a Shadow Ape with a spear, correct? You should worry more about yourself. You do realize that was reckless, I hope."

Mika wiped his face quickly with the back of his wrist, trying his hardest to find any strength left in his body to push himself upright. "...It was going after her. What other choice did I have?"

The woman remined silent for a second. "I suppose not many. You were brave, that's for sure." She reached out suddenly, pressing two fingers against Mika's forehead, only to flick him before he could react. "Yet also stupid."

"Ouch! D-Don't call me stupid! And.... Just who are you? You aren't from Dolphin Island, are you?" Mika asked the questions he had wanted to voice since she appeared. He had other questions, such as what she's doing here and such, but for now, he thought they could wait.

She glanced once more toward Maya, something hidden behind her gaze.

"Raiko." She answered, looking back at him. "I'm a Seeker."